Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Monday, April 30, 2007

While eating falafel earlier today I read Yedioth Aharonoth. Obviously many of the headlines dealt with the publication, at 4 o'clock this afternoon, of the interim report of the Winograd Commission, which has been investigating the functioning of this country's military and political authorities before and during the second Lebanon war. Experts do not expect that as a result of the report - which heavily criticizes the way in which the Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Chief of Staff conducted the war - Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz will be forced to step down. That could happen, though, when the final report is published in the summer. Of two excellent op-ed articles I found an online English translation. Yaacov Hasdai wrote about Golda Meir's government ( "...compared to the cabinet we have today, it was a government of giants " ) and argues why Golda deserves a re-appreciation. Nahum Barnea's piece I liked in particular. It deals with all the spin that is being spun by Olmerts PR managers and quotes one of Olmert's aides: "Had Olmert prepared for the war the way he is preparing for the war over the Winograd report [...] perhaps there would have been no commission and no report." Barnea concludes with just two words that say what almost an entire nation must be feeling: "If only."